Not Quite Insta

I have a love-hate relationship with all things social media. I love the way it creates and extends relationships across distances but hate the way it distills people’s thoughts, feelings and beliefs into sound bites.

I find that often people I love and respect say thoughtless, hurtful, stressful or inflammatory things on the internet that they would never say to someone in person. For some people, Facebook seems to be a dumping ground for all their worries, fears and insecurities.

Less and less are Twitter and Facebook happy places for me. I use them as I need them, but they’re not fun like they were in the beginning. They are not my “happy places.”

Because of this, I’ve been resistant to expand my social media horizons.

Finally, about 50 years after everyone else, I joined Instagram last week and WHAT TOOK ME SO LONG!?

This is the happy social media hub. It’s a place to post small pieces of light, joy and humor in the form of photos. Little slices of life. I love it. LOVE. I’m way late to the party, but Instagram has replaced Facebook for me as a daily go-to to see what’s happening in my friends’ lives. This is the real stuff. It is 99% positive. It is visually pleasing.

Instagram – Look at the frog I found at work.
Facebook – I am suing my employer for discrimination.

Instagram – My desk is messy because I just wrote an awesome paper.
Facebook – Here’s a link to a whitepaper about how all is lost.

Instagram – Doesn’t my crazy Ragnar hat look rad?
Facebook – I’m so sick of all the crazy Ragnar people. They are a sign that the government wants to take away all of our rights and deprive us of Oreos.

So, join me on Instagram. Because it’s awesome. Because I want to know if you found a frog at work. Or what your daughter’s milk mustache looks like. These are the things that matter to me. Life is too short to not share pictures of your cat all day.

1 Response to Not Quite Insta

I joined Instagram last week for the exact same reason. In the last three weeks I observed three major feuds between my relatives, friends, and neighbors on Facebook. It was so hard to see the toxic side of people I used to be able to think the best of. Instagram seems like a lot of fun, I hope it stays that way.